Quick Hits: Cashman, Free Agency, Rebuilding Teams, Pedroia

On this day 20 years ago, the Yankees announced Brian Cashman would take over for the resigned Bob Watson as their general manager. The 50-year-old Cashman remains in that post today, making him the game’s longest-tenured GM, and it’s no surprise he has hung around when you consider the team’s accomplishments on his watch. The Cashman-led Yankees have gone to the playoffs 16 times, earning six American League pennants and four World Series championships along the way. The fact that Cashman has lasted as long as he has in the sport’s biggest market makes his run all the more impressive, a rival GM suggested to Buster Olney of ESPN. “Twenty years, in New York,” he said. “That’s, what, 140 dog years? Two hundred years?” Olney’s piece is worth checking out for more on Cashman first two decades as a GM, including the relationship he had with former boss and late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

More from around baseball as this historically slow offseason continues to plod along…

Tyler Kepner of the New York Times discussed this inactive winter with with a free agent who, like many other veterans, hasn’t enjoyed his trip to the open market. While commissioner Rob Manfred is zeroing in on implementing pace-of-play changes, the players themselves have bigger concerns, according to the free agent. “The players are so much more focused on what’s always been the crown jewel of our union, which is free agency, and the way that’s kind of been taken away,” he said. “It’s something you once fought and strove for — you wanted to become a free agent desperately.” Saturday looks set to pass without any major league free agent signings, continuing to leave upward of 110 players without deals.

The Astros, Cubs and Nationals have pulled off model rebuilds in recent years, observes Jim Bowden of The Athletic (subscription required), who goes on to rank the majors’ current rebuilding clubs based on how well they’re executing their plans. No one is doing a better job than the White Sox, Bowden opines, in part because of the recent returns they’ve received in trades for such veterans as Chris Sale, Jose Quintana and Adam Eaton. The ChiSox have five top 100 prospects, per Baseball America, and three – Eloy Jimenez, Michael Kopech and Dane Dunning – joined the organization via those deals (as did second baseman Yoan Moncada, who has graduated from top prospect status). The other two – Alec Hansen and Luis Robert – came from the draft and international free agency, respectively, which Bowden also highlights as important avenues in which rebuilding teams must hit the jackpot.

Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia will sit out some of 2018 after undergoing left knee surgery in October, but there’s hope he won’t miss much time. As per his rehab schedule, Pedroia is lining up for a late-April or early May return, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe estimates. Pedroia told Cafado that he hasn’t suffered any setbacks in his rehab, adding that his “knee has responded well” to running and strength exercises. After roughly six more weeks of running and then, as Cafardo writes, “a period of agility work,” Pedroia will be able to start baseball activities. The 34-year-old franchise stalwart also explained to Cafardo that knee problems weighed on him both physically and mentally in 2017, when he appeared in just 105 games, but he’s currently pain-free.

I think that’s a pretty fair retort. He HAS worked with greater resources than almost all (all?) other clubs. And yet he’s brought a lot of stability and intelligence to the club and helped create (not just via money) a winning culture far more often than not.

and Chicago finished dead last how many times to get to where they are talent wise?
And did Pope Theo also make all those lousy signings in Beantown that LA let them off the hook on too?
You’re right….he’s just awesome!

Theo deserves all the kudos. He did what mo one else could do, he’s a magician weaving his magic to give 2 cities what they needed. I am sad Theo not in Boston, but I’m happy for him too after the Redsox management let him go. If I were to guess I would guess over money, like Tito, too.

Actually it was Ben Cherington who got LA to take those deals. Not Theo. Theo resigned as GM from the Red Sox after the 2011 season and then becamse president of baseball operations for the Cubs almost immediately after. Cherington then became GM of the Red Sox. That trade happened in August 2012.

Cashman led teams have also NEVER had a losing record. Even with a high payroll (which look at other teams along the way with near high payrolls that didn’t have sustained success) is an impressive feat

The worst thing about baseball – and I love it- is the unfair payrolls, irregardless of revenue sharing. The Yankees and Red Sox in the same division as the Rays is a joke. Imagine the Rays with 5 more players making $20 mil each. And it could get worse if the players think this new system is broken.

You think the worst thing about baseball is Yankees and Red Sox being in same division as the Rays lmao so you want big market teams in same division and small market teams in same division that would make playoffs a joke.

Not to mention the rays have actually competed in the division for a majority of the last 10 years for the playoffs.

Explain how you want divisions aligned and how’d that make MLB better? You know the same league you claim to know what your talking about…. the same league that has more playoff team turnover than NFL and NBA

Please re-read what I wrote- I said payrolls and I didn’t mention a fix. That would certainly take up much more room here for such a complicated problem.

And to your last point: yes, playoff turnover has been part of the league, no question. But it’s about windows and those smaller market teams have much smaller windows, and still act as farm teams to big market teams. You think the Yankeees would lose Archer bc they couldn’t afford him? It’s absolutely NOT a competitive playing field and the big market teams have a competitive advantage.

“ . . . so you want big market teams in same division and small market teams in same division that would make playoffs a joke.”

How so? If you are suggesting that the team from the big market division would usually have more talent and overpower the team from the small market you’re missing the point.

It is much more likely that a weaker team will beat a stronger team in a five or seven game series than that the weaker team will finish ahead at the end of a one hundred sixty two games. IOW, small market teams have a better chance of winning a championship if teams are segregated by market size (and presumably money) than they do under the current system.

You claim to know what you’re talking about also! The writer on here seem to think that any one that doesn’t agree with them is wrong. To say that a team with approximately 200 million annual payroll over a team with a 100 +million payroll is ludicrous. Let’s just read the posts and state our opinion without putting down others for their opinions.

Haha the grammar police are up late tonight. This site is full of them. From Merriam-Webster on the word: “The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however.”

Actually irregardless IS a word, but it is considered informal. From Merriam-Webster, “Irregardless was popularized in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its increasingly widespread spoken use called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.” How about we stick to discussing baseball and worry less about people’s use of words you may not like, but technically isn’t wrong?

The word “irregardless” is technically wrong, you fool. Its mentioned in Merriam-Webster due to the wide usage of the word, doesnt mean its correct. I want you to seriously consider what “irregardless” means for a moment. The prefix “ir” indicates that the word that you are saying the opposite of whatever follows “ir”. For example, “irregular” means not regular and “irresponsible” means not responsible. The suffix “less” indicates that its without whatever word came before it. For example, “regardless” means without regard and “thoughtless” means without thought. So when you are saying “irregardless” you are saying “not without regard” which just means “regard”.

If you knew the word “informal” meant youd know that whatever word is “informal” is an unofficial word (which is, btw, not a real word in the english language). Neither is “btw” or any other mis-pronunciation or mis-spelling of any word you can think of. However, its just incredibly stupid to use irregardless because most fools who use it think that it makes them sound smarter because its a word with more syllables than their used to. So while it IS technically a word, its not correct, and you would be foolish to think its a suitable synonym for “regardless”.

Who remembers the time Bowden got tricked by a fake account during the 2014 trade deadline and said that the Yanks acquired Marlon Byrd.
I think the funniest part of the whole thing was when he deactivated his twitter for like a few days.

Pedroia is not playing , hence the pain free. The original forecast was for him to be back in mid May. Macho man then said he might be back for opening day. This is the guy who came back too early in 2010 and cost himself the rest of the year. Its one thing to be tough, its another to be foolish. Just hope next time he cant play effectively due to injury he benches himself or the Red Sox do it themselves. Dont hold your breath though

1 case, the 2010 season playing, or attempt to play with a screw newly inserted into his foot. how about playing entire seasons with torn ligaments in his hand? like 2016 and putting up nice numbers to boot? Pedroia not only generally does what he says, but never mentions it until after the season is over.

1)Trading Shane Greene in 3-team trade for Didi, was a stroke of pure genius, buying low on Didi, who came with a strong defensive reputation – but questionable bat –gave Yankees 5 years of Didi Gregorius — cost effective move, small market GM’s can make.

Didi came back to break the Yankees record for most HR hit by a Shortstop…Ever!

4) He traded Brian McCann (plus $5.5M a yearm for 2 years to pay down McCann $17M annual salary) after Gary Sanchez—for 2 prospects, currently MLB top-100 prospects—one of which he used as the main prospect in Stanton trade (Guzman BA #87)– and another that remains with the organization, Albert Abreu (#74 2018 MLB.com’s top-100) and (#77 2018 BA’s MLB top-100)

In Honor to Cashman getting hired as GM, 20 years ago (Febrary 3, 1998) I appreciate you Cash, even though the haters love to take away from you. Yankees fans appreciate.

He has hit some of course but the expectations when you constantly leas the league in salary are high. I don’t think 1 WS in the last 16 years is killing it. A few years Girardi did a great job to have a winning record with the team of dinosaurs he was given. Things that didn’t work out include ARods extension, Texeira, Pavano, Ellsbury, and others. With a big bank account you can hit and miss on a lot of moves and keep making more.

Um, first of all there’s only been a HR “derby” for ten or so years. Secondly, participation is both voluntary and by invitation. Thirdly, nobody gives a rat’s behind about the HR derby.

Worth noting that the Yankees would have been better off had they taken Cashman’s advice to let both Arod and Carston Charles walk when they opted out of their respective contracts. While having lots of money to spend solves many problems, it creates a few as well. Take Jacoby Ellsbury, for example.

“Um,first of all there’s only been a HR derby for ten or so years” wrong the first HR Derby was held at the 1985 All Star game in the Metrodome and was won by Dave Parker. Yes people do care about the Derby. Last years derby was the highest rated since JR won it in 1999 at Fenway.

The thing that annoys me regarding the players, their union and agents regarding free agency’s sluggish market is that they’re making it seem like no one is making offers. They are but the deals just aren’t for as long as they want. With the absence of steroids and the trend of starters NOT pitching 200 innings anymore owners are hesitant to dole out contracts greater than 5 years. From what’s been reported, Dervish, Martinez, Hosmer and others have received contracts of 5 years and $100 mil. Maybe those numbers should be higher simply off of precedent of whay others received in the past but most of this year’s FAs come with warts. And honestly, other than “they can” why should owners of big market teams up against or already over the lux tax sign these guys for top dollar knowing that they have to shell out 20-50% on top of the value of the contract? Agents over estimate the value of their players. The fact that Boras has floated out the asking price for Martinez was going to be $200 mil is the problem. The fact that he or others are suggesting that Machado or Harper should command $300 – $400 mil deals next winter is the problem. A reset on high-risk players needed to happen. Teams are doing a much better job of analyzing FA value and leaving nor towards their farm more so than ever before since FA opened up in the 80s.

I agree with most of this except the Harper/Machado part. I think both still at least get close to the 400 million mark. They’re both much younger than the current free agents so you’re still getting a large chunk of their prime.

The loss to the DBacks was a broken bat hump back dribbler off of the greatest relief pitcher in the major leagues….don’t exactly think they beat the crap out of us, and if I remember correctly that DBacks team was pretty stacked with good players too!
Marlins…..just ran into a hot pitching staff….it happens. How about competing year in and year out for something which in todays world isn’t happening too often….see the Cubs and Astros absolutely tanking for years to build up a talent base.

He may not have built the whole team by himself but he helped build it…
When he took over he made major tweaks one trading for Roger Clemens in 1999 and many more additions along the way during that run…
Countless division titles,four WS titles,six WS appearances,Team of the 90’s and team of the 00’s.
Cash played the cards given him by MLB to spend because that’s the way it was. Just because other teams wouldn’t is just too bad…
Give everyone a break with the 10% facts and 110% wrong opinion…

But Yankees fans refuse to acknowledge how much of the team’s success is bought.

Take a look at the Giants, the Jets, the Knicks, the Rangers, the Islanders and see what happens to NY teams when forced to compete on a level playing field via a salary cap. All of them either bad or mediocre, at best.

Take a look at the two moves that kickstarted their retool….Miller to CLE and Chapman to CHC…

They got Miller as a free agent by signing him to a then unheard of contract for a non-closer. They deserve a lot of credit for developing his multi-inning usage and then flipping him as an asset for a big package, no doubt. But, they bought that asset.

Chapman is less obvious, but no less a product of their money advantage. Coming off his domestic abuse scandal, Chapman was a toxic player. Teams has reason to fear a media and/or fan backlash for employing him. A small market team (like the Reds) had reason to fear that having him on the team would hurt ticket sales, etc. The Yankees, on the other hand, could acquire him with no fear that he’d hurt ticket sales because even if a large portion of the fan base was, in fact, outraged by it, there are more than enough fans to replace them. As a result, they got Chapman for nothing and traded him for a fortune. Smart. But again, enabled by their financial might.

If Cashman ran the Pirates for the last 20 years, would he have 5 titles? Kinda doubt it.

“Coming off his domestic abuse scandal, Chapman was a toxic player. Teams has reason to fear a media and/or fan backlash for employing him. A small market team (like the Reds) had reason to fear that having him on the team would hurt ticket sales, etc. The Yankees, on the other hand, could acquire him with no fear that he’d hurt ticket sales because even if a large portion of the fan base was, in fact, outraged by it, there are more than enough fans to replace them.”

They could take that chance with no risk, while it represented a risk for most other teams and so the Yankees got an elite player for peanuts.

Obsessed Red Sox fan here. I’d be thrilled if Cashman left the Yankees. Sure he’s got the money, but look at his trades. When he’s trading to win, he gets what he needs without giving up much; on the rare occasions when he convinced his bosses to let him trade to reload, he killed it too. Everybody GM in the game swings and misses sometimes, there are no guarantees on the future performance of any player, but if you don’t cherrypick, his overall track record is terrific. Read the two stories on ESPN about him for a big pic, including behind the scenes stuff like realizing how and why the Sox had passed them and remaking every department to catch up.

Epstein rebuilt a terrible organization that hadn’t won jack in 100 years…TWICE. In terms of buying power, no GM can match Cashman. In terms of brain power, Estein is the best there is right now, maybe ever.

I’m SO tired of hearing the players and their demanding agents whining about the snails pace of teams signing the current crop of FAs.
Last CBA, the Players Association complained how a first round draft pick being attached to signings as compensation was causing many players to settle for less than they wanted. Therefore, the PA fought to change the system of compensating teams for the loss of a valued player. With elimination of the dreaded first round entry drafy pick, The MLBPA eagerly agreed to the entire FA structure now in place, complements of the brandy new collectively bargained agreement. This included the severe team salary cap figures now in place, which were meant to do EXACTLY what they are now doing: forcing most big spending teams—i.e. the Yankees and Dodgers—to limit salary expenditures, rather than pay anyway from the 30% to 90% tax on cap overages when over the limit for three consecutive seasons.
And guess what? The players and agents who enable the unrealistic demands—someone say Scott Boras?—in terms of years and salary for FA contracts, DON’T LIKE THIS SYSTEM, either. What a surprise.
That NO ONE involved with the players union or their myopic agents foresaw any facet of the current results due to said changes, before signing off on the new CBA, tells you Tony Clark may well have been a good player once, but as head of the union, he and the rest of his executive board did a combination Bill Buckner/Bartman—the ultimate in über untimely mistakes—on this agreement with the owners. Aside from their avaricious agents, the majority of whom indulged in their annual ritual of dreaming of the riches about to befall them prior to this FA season, the 100+ players still on the market searching for a new home to call their own have no one to blame but themselves and the MLBPA for their current “woe is us” predicament.
Like many fans, I feel for those guys but I just can’t quite reach them.